and sighs my name as his rolling hips start to slow.
I lift my hand from his neck and he spins me around slowly, kissing me gently on the lips.
A laugh escapes me as I get a good look at him. His hair is ruffled from my hands. His lips are red and swollen. His gaze is still heavy-lidded like he’s utterly spent.
His jeans are still halfway on. His shirt is askew.
“We’re animals,” I tease with a shake of my head.
“You do this to me,” he says, yanking his shirt up and off. “What do you expect?”
“Maybe show some decorum next time,” I throw back with a wink. “Proper seduction. You know, candles and perhaps some 90s R&B.”
“I’ll try to remember,” he taunts.
Yeah right. Odds are we won’t make it past the door again. Maybe we’ll end up on the floor, but definitely not the bed. Neither one of us is patient enough for that.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aiden
It’s early. The sun hasn’t come up yet, but I can’t fall back asleep. Jet lag has set in.
Maddie lies beside me, tucked up against my body. We’re together on her bed, and I’m in no hurry to get up even though I’d kill for a cup of coffee.
We showered before bed last night, and she went to sleep with wet hair. It’s dried in crazy curls, a huge mess across her pillow. I reach out to brush one of the strands away from her face and she stirs for a moment before burrowing deeper into her blankets.
It makes me laugh before I turn and drop my feet to the ground. If I sit here much longer, I’ll wake her up with my impatience.
I’m about to stand when her hand reaches out to grab my arm.
“Don’t go,” she says with a quiet, sleepy voice.
I glance back to see her eyes are still closed, like she’s not quite ready to shake off the last few remnants of sleep.
“I was just going to put on a pot of coffee.”
“Just stay for another second,” she says, tugging on my arm.
I do as she says, lying back down in bed and gathering her against me. She throws one of her legs over mine, tangling our limbs.
“I won’t go back to sleep, I promise,” she says, nestling her head against my chest.
I hum in disbelief.
“I promise,” she says again. “Just talk to me and I’ll stay awake.”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Tell me how long you plan to stay.”
My body tenses. I was hoping we wouldn’t go down this road until after having a cup of coffee. Better yet, three or four.
When I don’t respond, she opens her eyes and blinks up at me. “How long?”
“Through the weekend.”
She rolls onto her back and looks up at the ceiling. “So…tomorrow. You’re leaving tomorrow.”
“I have to. This wasn’t a planned thing. I wasn’t supposed to leave Dubai early.”
There’s a long silence as I brace for her annoyance. I don’t blame her one bit. Neither of us wants this arrangement. We’re doing the best we can.
I’m about to ask her what she’s thinking, but then she nods and sits up. “Okay then, if that’s the case, let’s go.”
“What?”
Her attitude takes me by surprise. I expected her to be more upset.
“Yeah, let’s go. If we only have until tomorrow, we have a lot of love to cram into a few hours.”
I laugh and shake my head as she leaps out of bed.
“We’ll go to breakfast and then we can take a walk around Town Lake. I haven’t been to BookPeople in forever. We can browse through their new fiction section and then—”
I grab ahold of her waist and yank her back onto the bed.
She yelps as I swing my body over and on top of hers.
“We’ll do all of that,” I tell her, starting to tug her tank top up over her stomach. “Just…later.”
“Are you kidding me!? Again!?” She laughs.
“I can’t help myself,” I say, dropping my lips to her navel. I’m already working her shorts off her legs. “Try not to wake the dead this time, will you? I bet Lucy is still sleeping.”
We stay in her room all morning, tangling her sheets, getting sweaty and worked up before showering off again. The moment we stop physically touching, it feels like she’s already starting to slip through my fingers again. I can’t help but think of what happens tomorrow. I’ll be leaving her again, half a world away from her…again.
I’ve made a mess of this situation. Not only do I have to contend